Damascus' next mayor Steve Spinnett ready to face a new challenge

View full sizeBrent Wojahn/The OregonianSteve Spinnett, the new Mayor of Damascus works at his Auto Repair shop, Steve's Imports, in southeast Portland with Aaron Coy of West Linn. Spinnett has lived in Damascus for 17 years.

The 5-year-old boy standing on the freshly tarred deck of a Japanese freighter, the China Bear, stared out into a clear morning. The orange-red steel beams of the Golden Gate Bridge stood out in stark contrast to the blue skies and the gray buildings behind it.

It had been a long 10-day journey of taking little red pills to cope with rough seas and staying in the hull with seven other family members while the crew tarred the surface of the deck. The freighter had been all Steve Spinnett's parents could afford, between his father's military stipend and his mother's missionary wages, but it had brought them home to the United States.

"The Golden Gate Bridge and the city -- this was my first idea of the United States," Spinnett says a half-century later. "I had heard so many things about this dreamland called America."

Steve Spinnett at a glance

Age: 56

Wife: Cindy Spinnett

Children: Rebekah Joy, 29; John, 26; Thommy, 19

Employment: Owner of Steve's Imports

Dream vacation: A road trip from Portland to Central or South

America.

Trivia: Spinnett used to raise exotic birds and was grand champion at multiple fairs for his ducks and Canada geese. His cell phone ring is a duck call.

The voyage was the first of many difficulties Spinnett would face. He is proud of overcoming challenges and feels the adversity has prepared him to take office Jan. 1 as Damascus' next mayor. The early years Spinnett came to the U.S. after living in Japan for five years while his father served in the U.S. Army and his mother sought converts to Christianity.

The family settled in Portland, where his mother had relatives. For the first few years, Spinnett's father struggled to find employment and "never made much."

"We had a lot of kids, a lot of mouths to feed," says Spinnett, 56, whose parents eventually had 10 children. "We didn't have too many extras."

Jude Spinnett, his twin sister, who now lives in Kansas, remembers her brother as a free spirit of sorts.

"There was just too many for our parents to handle, so we were left to fend for ourselves," she said. Her brother really managed on his own, "and he always seemed to do OK."

In 1962, when Steve Spinnett was in elementary school, the family moved to Oahu, Hawaii. There, Spinnett sold to surfers bread his mother had baked. He learned basic business practices and how to watch his mouth.

"People would call us haoles" -- Hawaiian slang for "white people" -- "and I realized there that you have to be careful what comes out of your mouth," Spinnett said.

A teen alone By 1969, the Spinnetts had moved back to Portland and were experiencing a rocky period. Steve Spinnett recalled that his father had become abusive; when the boy was in eighth grade, his parents finalized their divorce. Spinnett found himself feeling alone even among nine siblings.

He started at Gresham High School, but at 15, he stopped attending classes. His mother kicked him out of the house around May 1969.

"We all just went through some rough times, and for Steve, most of his poor choices had to do with the fact that our father was ill, mentally ill," Jude Spinnett said.

Her brother lived along the Sandy River, finding shelter in abandoned homes as needed. As the summer wound down, Spinnett reconnected with his father, who took him in.

He was sent to Sunset High School in Beaverton, where he says he continued the cycles of underage drinking, doing drugs and other behaviors he'd started while living at his mother's house. By the end of his senior year, he was many credits behind and it appeared that he would not graduate on time.

Instead of making up the credits, the young Spinnett packed his bags and went back to Hawaii's North Shore. A rebirth Time in Hawaii seemed to slow him down. Despite constant partying, he was able to reflect on the family and support he had left behind.

One night as friends drank and danced around a crackling bonfire, Spinnett broke away. He realized he wanted a relationship with a higher power that wasn't based on rules and regulations but on love.

As he sat in the sand, he said, God reached out to him.

"Throughout the years, I'd known who God was but wanted to live my own life," Spinnett said. "That night I gave my life to Christ."

He called into the dark night, "Lord, I give it over to you." The next day he was on a flight to Portland, without a plan but with the desire to straighten up.

He resumed working on cars, a hobby he'd started as a teenager, and trying to rebuild his role as a brother and son.

"From a sister's perspective, sometimes my relationship with my brother has been bittersweet, especially when we were younger -- we were never close -- but it's better now," Jude Spinnett said.

After spending about two weeks in jail for time he owed for unpaid traffic tickets, Spinnett went to live with a church group.

It was there that he met his wife of 31 years, Cindy, and in the backyard of the church's community housing, started an informal car-repair business.

In 1976, at age 21, he opened a repair shop at 7273 S.E. 92nd Ave. He now has more than 10 employees; high-end European and Asian cars fill the shop's mechanical bays.

Spinnett's three children now run the business, but he is still there every day answering questions, bantering with staff and greeting longtime customers. A new interest In 1993, the Spinnetts moved to Damascus. They helped design their house -- its large windows currently bear stickers with Spinnett's mayoral campaign slogan, "Let's take back Damascus" -- at the end of a long, gravel road.

Soon after building their house, they looked into developing their 11 acres for future use by their children, only to find their property was zoned as forest/transitional timberland, with a restriction of one single-family residence on their tract.

Shocked by their newfound knowledge, Cindy and Steve Spinnett set out to start a political movement and change the way Damascus politics worked.

"We were shocked by how quickly and intensely we got a response," Spinnett said. "They were feeling what we were feeling."

After Damascus incorporated as a city, Spinnett kept at his public involvement, starting the Damascus Community Coalition. Despite the group's name, the work it did seemed only to deepen the divide within the community. Residents seemed either to back Spinnett and his fight for property rights, or support the City Council and its push toward denser urbanization with large green spaces.

"It's interesting because (Steve's) spent the last six years splitting this community and criticizing what we've been doing, and now he's coming in saying he'll fix it," said Diana Helm, council president and Spinnett's opponent in the mayor's race.

The two recently had coffee. While Helm recognized the gesture as an effort to build bridges with her and other councilors, she urged Spinnett to remember one important factor.

"It's an age-old concept: What we do with our land affects our neighbors, our natural resources and our overall quality of life," she said. Legal entanglements Like his missionary mother, Spinnett has been willing to act on his religious views. Through his association with a group called Advocates for Life, Spinnett participated in anti-abortion demonstrations that resulted in his arrest in 1989.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear an appeal of the $8.2 million damage award Lovejoy won against the protesters. In 1993, the Spinnetts faced another court case, according to a document from one of Spinnett's neighbors that became an issue in Spinnett's mayoral campaign. Kathy and Randy Russell sent out letters to Damascus residents earlier this year related to their complaints about Spinnett. The letter references a lawsuit over the clearing of about 15,000 square feet of the Russell property.

According to court documents, the Spinnetts logged about six acres of their property and in doing so, cleared a number of trees belonging to the Russells. Spinnett acknowledged cutting trees on the Russells' property but said it was accidental.

Ultimately, the Spinnetts' insurance company paid the Russells $25,000.

Looking forward Spinnett is a self-proclaimed property rights proponent but said he also believes in reasonable conservation values.

Finding the balance between the two will be the key to a successful term. But it is something he looks forward to.

Since 2004, when Damascus incorporated, the city has remained divided over land-use issues.

Its draft comprehensive plan, which is set for council review Monday, anticipates 50,000 more residents living in dense urban areas with wide green spaces. Current residents see the economic benefit of growth but worry about preserving Damascus' rural feel.

As mayor, Spinnett will need to find a common ground.

"We have a very 'us versus them' mentality," Helm said, "and he's going to need to try creating a 'we' mentality. ... We'll know in about two years if it he was successful."

Spinnett said he looks forward to the challenge and to regaining respect from residents who might have turned against him.

"I know that I will bring leadership to a place where there has always been a leadership void."